Rodel Tapaya has become one of the most-watched artists from the Philippines in recent years. He appropriates archetypes from Filipino folk legends and oral histories, expanding and moulding them into a visual language that is all his own. Tapaya's stories are full of magical visions; he re-examines every myth, reflecting on a sense of cultural belonging. By interpreting them through a new artistic lens, he creates an interaction between popular culture and ancient myth.
Read MoreTapaya was awarded the coveted Top Prize at the Nokia Art Awards, which allowed him to pursue intensive drawing and painting courses at Parsons School of Design in New York and the University of Helsinki in Finland. In 2011, he won a landmark achievement for a Filipino artist by winning the Signature Art Prize given by the Asia-Pacific Breweries Foundation and the Singapore Art Museum. He was also among the Thirteen Artists Awardee of the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2012.
His work is held in the following international museum collections: Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Australia, Tokyo Mori Art Museum Collection, Singapore Art Museum, Philippines Bencab Museum Collection, Philippines Ateneo Art Gallery Collection, Philippines Pinto Art Museum, Central Bank of the Philippines.
Born 1980 in Montalban, Philippines, Tapaya lives and works in Bulacan, Philippines. Selected solo exhibitions include: Myths and Truths, Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing, China, 2018; Urban Labyrinth, Ayala Museum, Manila, Philippines, 2018; Rodel Tapaya: New Art from the Philippines, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia, 2017; Rodel Tapaya, Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen, Germany, 2016. Selected group exhibitions include: 15th Asia Arts Festival, Ningbo Museum of Art, Ningbo, China; Terra Incognita, Hilger BrotKunsthalle Vienna, Austria ; Passion and Procession: Art of the Philippines, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; 20th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, 2016; Thrice Upon a Time: A Century of Story in the Art of the Philippines, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, 2019.
Text courtesy Tang Contemporary Art.